Each year at the University of Colorado at Boulder, students and faculty members conduct sensitivity classes for freshmen, recruiters do outreach programs to boost minority enrollment, and activists from the student government, the NAACP, community groups and even the state legislature rally to help create an environment on campus that is safe and welcoming for all students.

Then some ignorant loser sends a vulgar, threatening e-mail and we’re all back to Alabama, circa 1963.

The latest target is a member of the Black Student Alliance and the Citizens United Against Hate committee in Boulder. The e-mail she received this week was profane, offensive and threatening.

It also was anonymous. The perp is not just an ignorant loser, he’s a coward.

“This has been very upsetting for all of us,” said Ron Stump, vice chancellor for student affairs. “Everybody who knows Mo loves her.”

I’d like to be able to reassure Gebre- Michael that this is an isolated case of some drooling Cro-Magnon who refuses to evolve.

I can’t.

In fact, we seem to be in the throes of a resurgence of racial, ethnic and sexual harassment in Colorado and across the country.

At CU, participants in the annual Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government in February were greeted with racist graffiti and racial epithets yelled from dormitory windows. Then in June, Andrew Sterling, an African-American student, had his jaw broken by a guy who allegedly jumped out of a passing van, called him names and beat him up.

In March, a 13-year-old boy harassed a black student at Ken Caryl Middle School with racial slurs.

Racial slurs were hurled at Battle Mountain High School football players during a game with Steamboat Springs last year.

Insults were directed at black college students on a field trip to Cortez by people who waved a Confederate flag from their car and swerved maniacally as if trying to hit them.

And on and on.

Stump said the problem of increasingly virulent hate speech was a common theme at the recent conference of the National Association of Universities and Colleges.

“The feeling you get is that something’s going on across this country,” he said.

Blame it on a nation divided, on the convenience and anonymity of the Internet, the unbridled hostility fostered on talk radio, and the shameless, covert smear campaigns that are revered as genius in modern politics.

Take your pick. It’s all of those things and more.

While the fallout from the e-mail to Gebre-Michael unavoidably sullies the university, bigotry begins at home, said state Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver.

The author of the e-mail “didn’t learn to be a racist at CU,” he said. “Racism is a lifelong learning process.”

The best hope for stemming the tide of hate crimes and harassment is encouraging other students – bystanders – to intervene, Stump said.

“We are trying to convey the message that everyone has a responsibility as part of this community,” he said. “The expectation is that you will intervene before this kind of behavior can have an impact.”

That has to start at the top, Groff said.

“I spoke to (CU) president (Hank) Brown, and I believe his level of concern is genuine. The administration is committed to turning around the culture on campus.”

Gebre-Michael’s courage in standing up to the bigotry provides a powerful role model.

“The way she has handled this is reminiscent of those folks who stood up when these things went on every day in this country,” Groff said.

“They stood up and said, ‘This is wrong.”‘

Diane Carman’s column usually appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. She can be reached at 303-820-1489 or dcarman@denverpost.com.

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